Review: The Last Exorcism Part 2 (2013)

Review by Disgruntled Monkey

Director: Ed Gass-Donnelly

Starring: Ashley Bell, Julia Garner, Spencer Treat Clark

Writers: Damien Chazelle and Ed Gass-Donnelly\

Discussion about the ending of The Last Exorcism crosses the gamut. Some love it, others feel it destroys the tone, some are so-so but like the movie overall. For me I was a fan and I really dug the heck out of the film. All hell breaks loose and a monstrosity that seems to come from the Cthulhu mythos is set free. When I heard that there was a sequel I wondered what way they could possibly go. How big was this film going to be?

Um well. It seems that the fake preacher from the first movie found god, defeated the dark lord and Nell who was housing this monster is still alive and now lives in a half way house for girls. Okay. So not exactly the way I thought they would go with this. And it is with this plot turn that I think the movie makes its first mistake. It hits the reset button so quickly, that this feels almost like a remake rather than a sequel and instantly will disappoint fans of the first film.

Second mistake is that the movie focuses on Nell. Don’t get me wrong, Ashley Bell does a fantastic job as Nell and honestly I hope this girl gets some work in more prestigious films rather than direct to DVD fair. However her character is very sombre, with good cause, but with the first film we had false preacher Cotton to lighten the load of the movie. He created a much needed energy in the film. Nell tends to slow things down, which would be fine if the script was a little more exciting.

This leads nicely to the third problem. For the love of zombie Jesus is the movie slow. So exceptionally, tremendously, mind numbingly tedious. What I’m getting at here is that its pacing leaves a lot to be desired, if you get my drift. It would be okay if things happened apace but, unfortunately, they really don’t and even for the brief moments when they do it’s often done in such a boring and unexciting way that it still feels like nothing has happened anyway. Numerous times I would stare at my watch and wish I was somewhere else. That is not a good sign.

Finally, this time through I also had a problem with the ending. Now I find that there are numerous ways to interpret the end, but if we take it at face value we pretty much end up at the same place we were at the end of the first movie. So why did I just wasted my god damn time watching this movie? Screw you movie, screw you from the depths of my soul.

Just hang in there kiddo, the movie is almost over.

If there are any positives I will say that the movie looks nice, but truly Ashley Bell is that stand out in this otherwise dreary fare. She deserves to be mentioned twice as she is truly fantastic and merits so much better than this. It’s a shame that this film wasted such talent, but here’s hoping she get’s another meaty role like this.

Fans of the first instalment should just avoid this one. New comers should watch the original and then also avoid this movie. There is no real point to it all. Thankfully this film really put a stop to The Last Exorcism becoming a franchise. Why would I say this? ‘Cause The Last Exorcism Part 2 is a title that is a lie and causes a rip in the space time continuum, and we don’t want that.